Charlie's Angel
by Mrs. Driveshaft
Summary: A new survivor helps Charlie deal with his drug habit.
1. Piecing The Puzzle Together

Mimi Fairchild sat on the beach and looked out over the ocean and thought about her life. She was a short 24 year old with fiery red hair and piercing green eyes. She had spent an amazing few weeks in Australia on a quest to find her birth mother. She had been unsuccessful in her search, but she had had a great time anyway. Her great time had come to a crashing stop when the flight she was on from Sydney to Los Angeles had crashed onto a deserted island. It was Oceanic Flight 815 and Mimi was one of 47 or 48, she could never remember the exact count, survivors. Actually, she thought the total count of survivors had just risen with the passengers from the tail end of the plane finally finding their way to the camp.

After a few minutes, Mimi decided to return to the shelter that she had built. As she approached her "home", she heard her "neighbors" arguing about something. Without trying to be too obvious, Mimi listened to what was going on. Claire, the blonde that had just had the baby, was hollering at her boyfriend, Charlie. Mimi wasn't exactly sure about what was going on, but it seemed to have something to do with whatever was in the Virgin Mary statue. Claire said something about drugs and then told Charlie to leave. Mimi couldn't hear much after that, but a little while later she saw Charlie lead Mr. Eko into the jungle.

Mimi wondered what had happened. She remembered seeing Charlie carrying around a Virgin Mary statue, but she had assumed that that meant that he was some sort of religious freak. She couldn't believe that that was true however, because she knew that he was the bass player for Driveshaft. She had also heard all the stories about drugs, alcohol, and loose women. She couldn't believe that Charlie Pace would indulge in all those sins and then be religious enough to carry around a Virgin Mary statue. Well, people do change she thought. She didn't really know anything about Charlie. Maybe the stories she had heard were wrong or maybe he had just straightened himself out and found religion.

For the rest of the afternoon, Mimi couldn't stop thinking about Charlie, the stories she had heard, and the Virgin Mary statue. She remembered that when they had first crash landed on the island, Charlie had seemed different than he did now. For a few weeks, he had been sick with what the Doc called the flu. Mimi suddenly pieced all the information together. When Charlie had supposedly been sick with the flu, he had been going through a painful detox. Mimi wasn't sure what his drug of choice was or if he had given it up or if he had run out, but the signs were all there. Mimi also remembered reading an article one time about the different things that drug smugglers used to get their drugs out of one country and into another. Religious artifacts were a popular form because they were rarely thoroughly checked. Mimi surmised from all of this information that Charlie had found his drug of choice somewhere on the island and had started using again or had seriously thought about using again if he was carrying it around with him everywhere.

Mimi thought about all of this for a little while. She decided that when Charlie came back to camp, she was going to talk to him. She didn't know if he would want to listen to her, but she had to give it a try.


	2. Thirteen

Mimi sat in the living room of her parents' home. No, she thought, they aren't my parents. I was adopted and I'll probably never know who my real parents were. Mimi had just turned thirteen and for some reason or another, her parents had decided to tell her that she was adopted. Mimi, of course, was devastated. Not only had she found out that she was adopted, but she also found out that her parents were getting a divorce. In what felt like an instant, Mimi's whole world had come crashing down around her.

Now, it was close to midnight. Her father had left to go be with his girlfriend. Her mother was in bed. Mimi, however, was on the couch with a bottle of her mother and father's vodka in front of her. She had never drank alcohol before tonight, but the bottle was already half empty. She wasn't even sure what had possessed her to go to the liquor cabinet and take the bottle out, but she had done it and right now, she had no regrets. The vodka brought a strange feeling to Mimi, but she liked it. She took another swig from the bottle and began to laugh. It was a very loud laugh and Mimi half hoped that her mother would hear her and come downstairs. Mimi knew that even if she was caught with the half empty vodka bottle, she would never get in trouble. Her parents would pretend like it never happened.

In no time at all, Mimi had finished the whole bottle of vodka and passed out on the sofa. In the morning, Mimi woke up on the couch with a pounding headache. She looked around and saw that the vodka bottle was gone. She heard her mother in the kitchen getting ready for work. She got up and went into the kitchen to get a drink of water and a few Tylenol. Her mother looked at her and smiled.

"You must have been up late last night watching television…when I got up this morning, you were sound asleep on the couch." Her mother stated as she placed her coffee cup in the sink.

"Yeah." Mimi lied as she got a bottle of water from the fridge and popped a few Tylenol into her mouth.

Her mother gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and then she was out the door. Mimi slumped against the counter. She couldn't believe that her mother was actually going to pretend that it never happened. She sighed, took another drink of her water, and headed upstairs to take a shower.


	3. Helping Hand

When Charlie got back from his adventure with Mr. Eko, he sat at the edge of the beach. He wanted to go to Claire and talk to her, but he knew that it was over between the two of them. Actually, it hadn't even started between them, but it was definitely over. Claire was so mad at him and he couldn't blame her. He had messed up again. He always messed up, but this time it was his fault. It was this damn island's fault. It had just dropped a plane loaded with drugs into his lap. He sighed and watched the water rush in and out.

"Hey." A voice spoke from behind Charlie.

He turned around hoping to see Claire, but it was Mimi. At least, that's what he thought her name was. He had talked to her a few times and he knew that her shelter was right by Claire's, but he wasn't entirely sure what her name was.

"Hey." He replied trying to let her know that he really didn't want any company.

Mimi didn't wait for an invitation. She sat down next to Charlie and watched the ocean for a few minutes too. She was trying to decide what to say to him. She didn't want to make him mad because then he wouldn't let her help him.

"I'm Mimi Fairchild, by the way." Mimi said as she extended her hand in front of him for him to shake.

He looked at her hand and then at her for a moment. Apparently, she wasn't going to go away.

"Charlie Pace." He responded as he shook her hand quickly.

"So anyway, I couldn't help overhearing the argument that you had earlier with Claire. She seemed really mad."

"Yeah."

"I know that it's none of my business, but I couldn't stop thinking about it today. I think that you need help and that I could be the one to give you that help."

"No offense, Mimi, but you don't know anything about me. I don't see how you could possibly help me."

"Well, I happen to know that you're Charlie Pace, the bass player for Driveshaft. It's pretty good music, but that's not really the point. You and your brother, Liam, were heavy into drugs, alcohol, and women, or at least that's how the story goes. Liam cleaned himself up, but left you in a downward spiral. I mean this is strictly hearsay, but stop me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I figure when we crash landed here on the island, you couldn't have had much of a supply. I don't know if you willing gave it up or if you just ran out, but when you had the 'flu', you were really going through withdrawal. At first, I couldn't figure out what the Virgin Mary statue that Claire seemed so upset over had to do with anything, but then I figured it out too. Some drug smugglers use religious relics to transport drugs because they are above suspicion. I figured that you found that statue filled with drugs somewhere on the island. Am I close?"

"Nigerian drug smugglers crashed their plane here with the statues. I found them with Sayid one day." Charlie whispered. He couldn't believe that she had been so right. "How did you know all that?"

"A recovering addict can usually spot the signs in someone else."

"Well, then you should know that I willingly gave up the drugs. Locke figured it out and took them from me, but when he gave them back I threw them in the fire. I haven't taken any since then. I found the statue and carried it around, but I never took any of them. It just made me feel better to know that they were there, just in case , you know."

"I believe you."

"Well, you're the only one. Claire's told everyone else now and they all think that I'm back on them. Maybe I should start taking them again. Mr. Eko burned up most of them, but I have a secret stash…which I guess is no longer a secret because I just told you."

"I won't tell anyone. Charlie, I just want to help you, but only if you want help. If you want to start taking the drugs again, I won't stop you, but I hope that you don't want to take them and you'll let me help you get through this."

"I don't really want to take them. I was on them for so long that I forgot how good it feels to be clean. It's just a lot harder than I thought it would be. I always thought that I could just stop whenever I wanted to, but that never worked out."

"So you want some help?"

"Yeah, but can I ask you something. It's just that you don't at all look like the kind of girl to be a recovering addict. What exactly were you addicted to?"

"It started with alcohol at thirteen. By fifteen, I was taking coke. I even took E for a while."

"So you were pretty hard core then?"

"More so than I like to think about sometimes."


	4. Twenty

Mimi was twenty years old. Since she was thirteen, she had been drinking and since she was fifteen, she had been snorting coke. Now, at twenty, she had just taken her first E tab. She was at some rave that a friend of hers had drug her to. She couldn't believe how alive the E made her feel. She was dancing with some guy and every part of her body felt like it was on fire. The guy was holding her hips and grinding his body against hers. She wished that they were both naked and that he was inside her. Mimi was definitely not a virgin. She had been having sex since she was fourteen years old. Recently, she had resorted to sex to get her coke supply because she couldn't afford it. Her promiscuity had already caused one unwanted pregnancy. Her parents had paid for the abortion without asking any questions. They refused to talk to Mimi about any of her habits that she knew they knew about.

"Baby, let's get out of here and go somewhere a little more private." They guy whispered as he kissed her neck.

Mimi didn't say anything, but she let the man, whose name she didn't even remember, lead her away from the party. The next thing that she remembered, she was in a bedroom. She couldn't remember where they were. She wasn't sure if he had taken her to a motel, or his apartment, or a dorm room or what. She just knew that she was naked and he was naked. He smiled at her and threw her onto the bed. Within instants, he was on top of her and roughly pushed his way into her. It hurt at first, but she was used to rough sex, so she just closed her eyes and allowed the guy to keep pounding into her. When they were finished, Mimi passed out.

Later when she woke up, she was laying on her stomach. Some guy was on top of her and pushing his manhood into her. She looked around and realized that she was in the same place, but that it was a different guy. He was having difficulty pushing into her because she was lying flat, so she got up on her knees and allowed him to enter her fully. This guy was a little more gentle than the other guy, so she actually began to enjoy herself. She moaned and moved along with his movements.

When he was finished, they both collapsed on the bed. After a few minutes, he gave her another E tab. They both took one and within minutes, they were all over each other again. She lost track of how many times they had sex, but she didn't care because it felt so good with this man.


	5. Up In Smoke

"So you've had a pretty tough go at it then?" Charlie inquired as he and Mimi sat near a fire they had built and talked.

Mimi had just told Charlie all about her life. She was ashamed of most of it and she left out a few of the more gory details, but she felt like sharing her story would help him to share his. When she had finally decided to straighten her life out at twenty-one, they only way that she felt better was when she told her therapist the whole story. She told her everything and hadn't even spared her the gory details. After several months of therapy, she had finally confessed all her deeds to her parents, but as usual they pretended like nothing had happened. It was okay with her this time though. Her therapist had helped her get passed her issues with her parents too. As a matter of fact, it was her therapist who had encouraged Mimi to begin a search for her birth parents.

So even though, her story was still hard to tell, especially to someone who was practically a complete stranger and someone that she had a little crush on, she told it. She wanted Charlie to open up to her. She knew that the only was the Charlie would start to feel better is if he got some things off his chest.

"It's wasn't an easy life, but the last few years have been better."

"You know I try to blame this all on my brother. As a matter of fact, one of the last things that I said to him was that he had made me this way. It's not really true though. I mean he is the one that wanted me to be in the band and he is the one that started using drugs first and he's the one that gave me my first taste of coke, but I wanted it. He didn't force it one me. I wanted to be in the band and even though, it's hard to admit I wanted to take those drugs. I saw how they made Liam. He was so much more comfortable in his skin when he was taking them. He told me that they made him feel alive and I wanted to feel alive, so I took the drugs."

"Charlie, it's good to admit things. It's good to get things off your chest and tell someone else."

"I do feel better. I want to feel better and I think I know how I can start to do that, but I need your help."

"I'll do whatever I can."

Charlie smiled. He knew what he had to do. He had to get rid of the rest of the drugs that he was hiding. He wasn't fooling anyone, not even himself. He didn't keep them around just because or just in case or whatever other bullshit excuse he used to try to convince himself or anyone else that they didn't matter to him. He kept them around because he wanted to take them. He wanted to rip open the bag and feel the taste of the drugs on his tongue. He wanted to forget about everything and feel alive again.

Early the next morning, Charlie led Mimi through the jungle to the secret hiding place where he had over a dozen Virgin Mary statues buried. He had asked her to come with him while he destroyed them. He knew that if they were gone for good, he could finally concentrate on getting better. He uncovered the statues as Mimi gathered some wood to make a small fire. Once the fire was going, Charlie took each statue one by one and threw it into the fire. The statues busted and the drugs went up in flames. Charlie and Mimi stood by as the reminder of the drugs on the island turned into nothing more than smoke and ashes. Mimi smiled at Charlie and reached for his hand. Hand in hand, they walked back to the beach where Charlie had promised to start telling Mimi the story of his life.


End file.
